Raising Azure Fire
by Calico45
Summary: Dragons are very special creatures and have always been; however, humans have only started to realize just how special in recent years. After the famed Magic Revolution most of the human race has not only accepted, but embraced magic in its entirety. With that comes envy, because humans do not have magic. However, they can get it through contracts with beings such as dragons.
1. Prologue

Raising Azure Fire

Prologue

Everything changes. That is something every creature knows; young or old; instinct driven or philosophically minded; beast or human. It is equally known that it is pointless to fight said change, yet that stops nothing, even now as a young dragon aerially circles her nest enclosing two distinct eggs. This dragon, long and sleek with coal black scales and eyes greener than the forest she nested in, could not bring herself to accept the fate handed to her and her young family. It was painful enough to lose her mate in his prime, but now to lose her children, too, and all because of a tradition she never accepted in the first place? She had begged, pleaded, and threatened all in her way and had gained nothing for it.

"It is the way things have always been." They would say, "Your mate was raised the same way."

"But I was not," she would always protest, with tears in her eyes, "And we were going to hatch our eggs ourselves, like _my family _did with me."

Yet no matter how many times she had this conversation, it always fell on deaf ears. It is simply how the modern world worked. Dragons were at one point nearly extinct because of all the effort that was put in to raising one hatchling. Young dragons were more productive finding mates rather than actually raising their children, which demanded a magical contract bond to be formed. So somewhere along the line a human was allowed to make said contract with an egg. To the surprise of many, the egg hatched, as it would with a dragon mentor, and that is how it all began. The hatchlings were being taken care off while the adult dragons were free, and what of the humans? After some time the contract bond became entirely new, granting the human raiser access to the hatchling's magic as compensation. Now, with both sides appeased, all eggs were raised by humans; it was unheard of for dragon parents to ever see their children until they were independent and it made her sick.

Although it was considered backward and completely detrimental to the species, some dragons did resist the change. Her family had been one of them. Because of it, though, her family was alienated and isolated. It became criticized as being savage and feral, no better than the ancient beast ancestors. Soon both sides hated each other and grew farther apart in ideology, as well as biology, in time. That should have been the end of the story, but another young dragon would never allow that: her mate. He was from the modern dragon royal bloodline, raised by humans just like the others. However, when he met a "savage," he did not treat her as such. In fact, he _listened_. He listened to everything she said, with open ears, eyes, and heart. That was why she fell in love with him, and he said once that he fell in love with her because she was strong enough to be whoever she wanted. That was why he had agreed to raising their hatchlings together, just like in ancient times, though he had never been particularly partial to human raisers. But now he was gone—just like her children soon would be.

Finally, she landed on the edge of the dirt nest and peered into it. There sat two eggs, one a beautiful blue and the other a soft violet. If she had only laid one she would not be in the same position, for only one hatchling could be raised at a time by anybody. Raising two was physically impossible because only one contract could be made at a time. Sure, there were rumors of talented human raisers or expert dragon mentors, but they were nothing more than rumors. So that left her with a dilemma: she could raise one egg, but had to give up the other. Which to choose? No! She could not bear to part from either, and having to choose between children was like choosing between parents. But what could she do? If she could not choose, she would lose them both. Humans would take them from her the moment she left the nest; the same would happen to the other egg she did not make a pact with. Although this egg would sleep until it had been contracted, it would be taken from her before she could raise the other hatchling to independence. All of this, a mother's broken heart, because it was seen as backward.

By now the tears were streaming down her face as she gazed at the two eggs longingly and lovingly. If her mate were still here the both of them could have been raised together by parents that loved them. She snorted at this. Humans did the same thing she wanted to, how ironic? Hypocritical, even, if anyone asked her. But no one did, and no one ever would because the one person that actually listened was dead. Sure she had family, she had family right in the nest in front of her, but nothing would ever be right again. She knew she would never take on another mate—so forget any new children. She would spend the rest of her long, long life wondering and worrying about the two before her because she could not choose between them, and she knew it. So, in the end, she had no choice. She left. She left both her beautiful eggs in their forest nest all alone; leaving what was left of her heart behind with them. Only if they could be happier than she, could she ever truly rest peacefully. But she would never know if they were, would she?


	2. Chapter 1

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 1, His

Arthur was never more nervous in his entire life. Today was finally the day that he would get the dragon partner he had been desiring since childhood—not that his childhood was over. Even at sixteen he was still considered a child dependent on his parents. Of course, none of that would matter to his new dragon. No, it would be just a newly hatched baby: completely dependent on him. He would be the parent then. Of course that made him plenty nervous. He did not exactly have the most ideal home life to base himself off of. What if he screwed up? What if his dragon just did not like him? What if—there were too many "what ifs" and it was driving him crazy.

"Arthur?" came the voice, snapping him out of his thoughts.

His head shot up and his emerald eyes landed on a fellow student: blond, shoulder length hair, deep blue eyes, and a generally feminine appearance other than the face stubble. Yep, it was Francis and it made Arthur wish he had never looked up.

"What do you want?" he bit out, sinking back into his anxieties.

A sigh met his ears and then a mellow response, "Nothing much, we just 'ave to leave soon. Aren't you excited? Today is the day many, me included, 'ave been waiting for, for years."

Arthur ran his fingers through his messy blond hair before responding, "Yeah… But so much can go wrong. Who knows what will happen?"

His voice was barely heard, which was completely uncharacteristic, along with the fact that he did not fight the man further. It was clear how big a toll this was all taking on him and it made his longtime rival slightly sympathetic.

"Arthur, I know you do not 'ave the most experience with children, but these are dragons. They are a little more resilient, I would 'ope. Although, I would admit that you could probably use a strong-willed one." Francis assured him, taking a tentative step forward.

In all honesty, despite his façade, Francis was not free from worry himself. No one was and if anyone said otherwise, they were lying. Dragons were exceptional beyond belief. Their magic was believed to be the most powerful and varied, but adult dragons were not the type to typically share their matured magic. No, if a contract was to be made it had to be with an egg. This egg had to be raised to adulthood, which is quite a task for any human, mind you, but the entire time a nearly unlimited amount of magic was accessible to the raiser. All in all, for anyone who desired magic, it was a great deal. As such, any dragon eggs were in high demand since the magic revolution that modernized the acceptance and usage of magic with humans. Now said eggs were only available to schools and the rich, this being one of those schools that offered a highly competitive dragon raising program. Everyone had fought for their place in this program, Arthur and Francis were no exceptions, but it did little to quell their nerves. After today, they would be entrusted to care for another life that was tied together with theirs. Add that to the fact that they would finally have magic available to them and that other life was a little more than human.

Arthur groaned at his statement, finally rising to his feet from the chair he had been resting in, "You act like I would kill it. I may not be good with kids, but that does not mean I would kill one! You really suck at this reassuring thing, Frog."

Francis then rolled his eyes playfully as the man before him once more put up a shield of confidence, "Yes, yes! We all know that our Student Council President would never kill his dragon—lest he fed it 'is cooking! Even an adult dragon could not survive that, much less a baby."

Arthur immediately turned a color red that Francis only thought dragon scales could be before he burst, "Excuse me!? You just have no taste, you cultureless snail! I will have you know, I am a wonderful cook."

Francis could not hold in the laughter at this. Wonderful cook? Maybe magical, if anything, because it takes some kind of magic to burn water! In all honesty, Francis was convinced that Arthur or his family may have been cursed in the past. It may explain a thing or two from when he met the bunch. The Kirkland family was pretty well known for its adept magic users, so it would not surprise him in the least if a family ancestor offered up their senses of taste and cooking abilities for magic skills. At the start of the magic revolution, nothing was more prized than magic itself so several families did make such deals. Once this thought left his mind he slowly regained his composure, noticing that Arthur, though quiet, was still the same color.

"What, pray tell, was so funny?" he hissed lowly, eying the man before him if he was nothing more than garbage on the side of the road, "Do tell, good fellow."

A shiver ran up Francis's spine and he suddenly regretted ever coming to find his rival. First he had failed to cheer him up, and now an innocent joke had ignited a murderous flame in his green eyes. Today just was not Francis's day. Still, he held firm. All running ever did was incite a predator's hunting instincts after all. He may have pushed too far, but he could still defend himself if need be.

"'Wonderful' simply was not the _exact _word I would use to describe your cooking, mon ami. It is as simple as that, I swear. But enough with this and to the real reason I came to find you. We will be late soon, I 'ope you know, and if we do not collect our eggs they will be given to someone else." Francis explained, hands in the air in a show of submission.

To his great relief, Arthur's hard expression softened—however, he continued that trend and paled completely. Apparently Francis thought too soon.

"Arthur—"

Before Francis could even get any other words out, Arthur had stormed out of his office and into the halls of the school as pale as a ghost. Francis knew his destination immediately and mentally kicked himself for it.

"Maybe I should have separated those two bits of information, non?" he whispered to himself as he locked the office door behind him and tried to follow his fellow student with great haste, which was quite a difficult thing to do due to Arthur's speed and his constant weaving through the crowds of people.

"Slow down!" he cried as the distance between them increased even further, but it was futile and they both knew it.

Francis had crossed another line he should not have, and he was mentally kicking himself once more. The only thing that worried Arthur more than his new life with his dragon is the fact that he may not get one at all. He had tormented himself daily until he found out he was accepted into the program, and then did everything to keep his record as flawless as possible for fear of being cut, which included playing nice with him which spoke volumes. Sheesh, today was just not going right. Normally he was so good at reading people. Maybe it was just all the tensions of finally getting dragons? After all, he had every right to be a little distracted as well. While he contemplated this he failed to realize that they were at their destination, the headmaster's office.

When Francis realized where he was he and Arthur had already made it inside to see that everyone else had been gathered. Now the only things that were missing were the eggs themselves, and they were probably being brought up from the vault at this very moment. With that final thought, Francis shuffled into the massive crowd of fellow accepted students. The headmaster's office was by no means small in comparison to other offices, but to a group of rowdy students, several teachers, and the headmaster himself it was worse than a sardine can at the moment. However, no one complained. Why would they, really? This event, the bonding between the eggs and their new raisers, was so important that it took place in front of the headmaster and away from prying eyes. In light of that finding room between the headmaster's plentiful, antique furnishings hardly seemed like an issue.

Suddenly an older man, graying hair and slight beard to match, but with life abound in his dark brown eyes, that everyone recognized as the headmaster stepped from around an old, hardwood desk, effectively silencing the entire room as he spoke, "Students, as you all know, today is the day you have been waiting for since you first applied to this program—and some from when you first decided to enroll in this school. It is honor to be here to see you bond with your dragons and receive your first taste of true magic. I, myself, was one of you outstanding students many years ago, standing in this very office, waiting to bond with my partner. Since then, many things have changed, but the role of dragon and dragon raiser has not. From this day forward you are responsible for not only your life, but your partner's and the rest of society around you. As far as I am concerned, with this bond comes the responsibilities of full grown adults and because of that, it is how I view you. So I must ask, like I do every time this event comes around, do any of you wish to withdraw from the program now? There is no shame in it, for raising a dragon _is_ raising a child with untold supernatural abilities. They will be stronger, faster, smarter, and more adept at magic than you from birth. They will go through things and have feelings that you could never hope to understand, as every parent dreads, and there will be conflict between the two of you. No, there certainly is no shame in backing out now, because even I have no idea what to expect from your dragons. All the books you have read and studied have only told you correlations in what has happened with young dragons. In all actuality, mature dragons have no idea what to expect from the hatchlings. So, I will ask once again, would anyone like to withdraw and save themselves from traveling a path of the unknown, filled with heartbreak and frustration, but also with bliss and sweet rapture from having a one of a kind companion?"

No one stirred as the headmaster's words sunk in. That was when it fully hit Arthur that today really was the day. If he thought he had been reeling with thoughts beforehand, he was in another world of trouble now. He felt so light headed with his new revelations that he very well might have fainted right there and then if the headmaster's ensuing smile did not have a strangely calming effect on everyone in the room as he motioned towards the door to his office, "Very well, I wish you all good luck and safe travel on the beginning of your new life path. And here is Mr. Rune with the eggs. Now we will keep this orderly. There is an egg that has been selected for every student. As you all know, we have about as much idea as to what kind of dragon is going to hatch out of it as you do. Even a dragon's own parents have no clues as to their offsprings' potentials. So what kind of partner you receive is all a part of the luck of the draw."

Arthur had not even properly collected himself when a bright blue egg that almost glowed with energy was carefully placed into his hands—and its mere presence made him tremble with fear. It was warm. He could practically feel the life growing within the egg, even as it slept, waiting for the person that would care for it throughout its youth. He was sure that if he put the thin eggshell to his ear he would be able to hear a heartbeat. It was _alive_ and oh so very fragile. Arthur felt like he was carrying a newborn baby in his arms, which he basically was. In panic, his eyes darted across the room, scanning familiar faces and reading conflicting emotions. Most people were actually pretty nervous, but not downright terrified like him. Maybe he should have withdrawn when he had the chance. If he could not so much as hold his egg without becoming a nervous wreck then he would surely be a failure as a parent to the poor creature. But what if he did withdraw? What would happen to the baby within then? He had no doubts that there was a waiting list longer than any novel for the life in his hands, but there had to be a reason why he was chosen instead of them. How could he live with himself if he let the poor thing be raised by someone inferior because he was a coward? This child deserved the best, like all the others handed out today, and how could he deny it that? Only then did Arthur steel his resolve. This egg and the life inside were _his_, his responsibility and his alone, and anyone could rot before they took that away from him.

One by one, the students lined up, side by side with eggs in hand, to wait and be called to the center of the room where they were be expected to perform the contract ritual they had practiced countless times by now in front of the headmaster and his teacher entourage. There was never really any set order assigned to the students, so anyone could go at any time up to center stage, and that was how Arthur found himself called up first. The headmaster sent him a reassuring smile, which told Arthur that the man had seen his entire internal struggle. If he had not steeled himself, he very well would have bolted away right there and then, but nothing could tear him away from his egg at this point. Even without a magic contract, he was attached. He practically felt a string between him and the egg grow taught as he placed it on the pedestal in the center of the room and backed away just enough to give it some space. The same man that had given him the egg, Mr. Rune, stepped away from the observing crowd and handed him a ceremonial, silver knife. With it he sliced just the tip of his right index finger before returning the blade and stepping back to his egg.

Blood was only called for in solemn and complex contracts, and, although, this contract was not all that complex, it was by far one of the most serious that existed. Any contract that gave a human, non-magical by birth, power it was never meant to have fell into this category, but a bond with an unhatched dragon was even more special in that regard. In ancient times when dragons raised their own offspring almost this exact contract had to be made to hatch the egg, with blood offered by the mentor dragon and all. It tied the two creatures together to ensure the life of the young one. That assurance came at the cost of viable dragon for breeding for countless years on end, because dragon lifespans far outspan human, and that coupled with the low number of eggs produced per clutch meant the species was put in grave danger. However, it just proved how much this little life was worth to everyone then and now, and that is all Arthur could think about as he drew the magic symbols in his blood on the baby blue shell and chanted the contract spell.

His chanting grew from that of a soft whisper to a stern hiss as the bloody symbols began to glow a blue similar to the egg's color. At once the entire egg was overtaken with the light and power radiated off the emerging creature as several currents of blue energy that acted like electricity erupted at random from the no longer visible shell. It took all Arthur's resolve to not take a step back as the glowing got stronger with the power being released that acted as powerful wind would in blowing everyone back. He continued his chant, not stopping for anything; not as the egg finally split, releasing a final gust that practically shook the entire room; not as the entire egg disappeared into thin air, leaving in its wake a tiny blond toddler; not as the toddler met his gaze and smiled a smile that could overpower the very sun itself, accenting all is features from his wheat like hair with one stubborn strand that stood above all the others to the expressive azure sky eyes that had a deepness anyone could get lost in; and not as the excruciating pain of the contract mark was carved into the skin of his chest, which was probably happening to the toddler at that very moment as well, but the sight was obscured by a white dress of sorts, decorated with a red ribbon, that newborn dragons all wore when they first took human form from birth.

"And to seal this bond and contract, I name my new blood, my new child, Alfred."

With the last words freed from Arthur's mouth, the chant was over and with it, the ritual. Arthur, after years of studying and fretting, finally had a dragon partner: _his Alfred_.


	3. Chapter 2

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 2, Lessons

When the headmaster spoke of a path of unknowns filled with bliss and frustration Arthur did not expect to walk said path every day of his life. No, he expected some blissful days, others frustrating, and the occasional unknown, but that was not Alfred. Oh no, this little whirlwind kept him on his toes, taking him from high to low and back again within seconds. Arthur began to think of it as a talent of his, a part of his childish charisma, to be able to bring about changes and emotions in people so easily. He was not blind, he had seen Alfred interacting with others and seen how he baffled them as much as he, but it certainly was not contested that he was the most afflicted. With the magical bond he shared with Alfred came several abilities to check on the boy, including an ability to find him from almost anywhere and to be able to feel his emotions and needs. One would think that would help him keep up with Alfred's thoughts, but that was simply not the case. Arthur learned rather quickly that his little charge was sometimes so spontaneous that he could not even keep up with himself. With no way to fight it, Arthur simply learned to adore it and the many other quirks he had found in their short time together. Now he could only consider himself a fool for ever considering withdrawing from the dragon raising program, even if it was every bit as difficult as the headmaster said and more.

Of course he adored Alfred. He adored the child before he even bonded with him, but that did not change anything when being awoken at three in the morning on a school night because the young dragon had a nightmare. Or did it change anything when his dorm room was turned into a battle zone to bathe the child. He was surprisingly hydrophobic when it came to bath water, despite leaping into a pond on the school grounds when Arthur was not paying attention. Or even when he had loads of paperwork from classes and the student council alike and Alfred insisted they play a game, did it change anything. And let's not even get started on how much the little boy ate. For all his good qualities, Alfred was simply too dependent and needy for him to be anything but a very taxing child and it was really wearing Arthur down. Thankfully, he was not the only one. Every single student in the program had a little less pep in their step since contracting their charges, all of which he had only just truly met and remembered. The young dragons had a way of pulling them all together, especially with their friendships and rivalries of their own making. That helped the new parents a lot more than they realized when they started going to each other for support, especially now that they were facing their biggest challenge yet.

The dragon raising program itself truly began after the contracting rituals, but not immediately. The program was designed to unite students with eggs and then train said students to use the magic now available to them. These students were expected to keep up with all their other classes and their new charges on top of getting used to using magic and the additional classes for it. Thankfully, this was not expected from them all at once. They were granted a grace period for two weeks to allow them to get used to daily life with their new children and those two weeks were nearly up. While Arthur had been too caught up with Alfred to worry about the impending strain at first, it was starting to weigh heavily on his and everyone else's minds. The moment after Arthur had contracted Alfred he had felt something strange about his body. He assumed that to be Alfred's magic he now had access to, however, using it and feeling it were two separate things. If his numerous studies taught him anything it was that magic was a fickle thing and controlling it was not to be taken lightly. He knew the training would be painful and exhaust him especially, because humans were not meant to physically contain and control magic. His contract with Alfred went against nature, and his body would have to pay the price. But that was the price any human had to pay for magic, and they all did so willingly, Arthur being no exception. Of course, that did not make him feel better about possibly neglecting Alfred because he could not handle it all.

It was during one of those guilt ridden moments locked away in his dorm room that Alfred caught Arthur off guard in that little way he always did. Alfred should have been taking a nap and Arthur should have been catching up on his homework, but he had been simply staring at the papers a good fifteen minutes before the boy spoke.

"What has been wrong with you lately?" Alfred asked simply, watching in slight amusement from the bed as Arthur sputtered around in his chair to regain his composure.

Even in the almost two weeks together, Arthur was still not used to the boy speaking suddenly. He was always used to being a bit of a loner and Alfred had not been able to speak for about the first week. How the child, dragon or not, picked up English that quickly he will never know. The question itself also had its part in knocking Arthur around. He knew he had been acting oddly, but only barely and it took more than two weeks to know someone's habits. It made Arthur wonder if Alfred could feel his emotions just like he could the child's, or if the boy was simply that perceptive. Neither would really surprise him, but it would still be nice to know, if anything, for future reference.

"Nothing you need to worry about, lad," Arthur assured, arranging the papers that were skewed in his little episode, "I am just thinking about magic."

"What about magic?" Alfred chirped innocently.

Something that Arthur picked up about Alfred was the fact that the child had assumed that magic came naturally to everyone. Although he had never witnessed his hatchling using the magic he talked about, when the child started talking equality in the magical world he assumed that said magic came easily to him, if nothing else, in knowledge only. Whenever Alfred would go off into tangents like on this magical equality, Arthur could not honestly say that he understood the child. It sounded official and important, but he knew Alfred enough to know that the child could make anything sound real if he believed it. It was just another whimsical quality about the boy that he chalked up to him being a dreamer.

"Well, I am finally going to learn to use it." Arthur stated after pause, now watching his young charge intently for a reaction.

At first he did not get a reaction at all other than an unreadable stare. Finally Alfred's face broke into something akin to confusion and then almost a calm acceptance. Each facial expression was accented with a pang of feeling that shot through Arthur, who was now more baffled than ever. When he had originally tried to explain that humans had no magic the child stubbornly refused to believe him. Finally, after much convincing, the child had been aghast, which finally changed into genuine sorrow as he sobbed for Arthur's and all other humans' loss. Only when he explained that humans learned how to share magic with other creatures and that he was sharing Alfred's magic did he calm down. Since then he somewhat avoided the topic of magic, unsure of how Alfred would react, and this certainly was not what he had been expecting.

"Alfred?" he questioned tentatively, gaining an innocently tilted head as a response, "What are you thinking about?"

Alfred pursed his lips at this and took his sweet time in answering, stealing glances at Arthur in what seemed to be an internal debate on what exactly to say, "It is weird."

Arthur blinked in response. What is weird? If Alfred were making a jab at his eyebrows right now he would probably punish the boy, but his behavior earlier said he was nothing but sincere in answering.

As if hearing Arthur's thoughts, Alfred continued, "You said that you learned from teachers, right? So you are going to be _taught _magic."

The emphasis on the word "taught" did not help Arthur in the least to figure out what Alfred meant. It only made it worse when the child looked at him expectantly, like he had just stated the most obvious thing in the world.

"I am afraid I am just not following, Alfred." Arthur muttered at last, in exasperation.

Alfred frowned at this, "Then it is a human thing like I thought. I cannot really explain it, but you cannot be taught magic. It is there and you use it. You just… know how, like it guides you. I almost wanted to say you cannot learn magic either, but magic is a part of you so you learn about magic like you learn about yourself. It is like learning to use your hands. They can do all kinds of things and you always had a general idea how to use them, but the more you use them and in different ways you figure out they can do more, cooler things."

Arthur listened intently to the boy's explanation and had to admit that it actually sounded pretty plausible. Maybe that was how magical creatures knew how to use magic, but Alfred had been right about the human thing. Humans were different. Although they had access to magic it would always be harder for them to control it and usually they had to use spells for things magical creatures just did, probably the way Alfred described it. Willing magic to one's bidding usually required a verbal command for a human, which could be seen as a little odd to magical creatures, but humans had no other ways to maintain it.

Arthur smiled at the boy and reached over to ruffle his soft hair, "It is a human thing then, but maybe I should have said l would learn spells."

Alfred frowned again, still sensing the disconnect between them. It was hard on him not being able to explain things properly to Arthur; though it was not for lack of trying and he was beginning to think it was not for lack of ability either. There were just some things that humans could not understand apparently and it bothered him more than Arthur said it should, but he could not help it. If humans were born without magic, even if they share magic, then they do not know how to use it. Using magic cannot be taught, that Alfred knew for a certainty. These spells, as he learned, were what forced magic to obey humans. He had seen a few cast other than the one that contracted him and he could not bring himself to like them. They seemed so unnatural and forceful. Magic was supposed to flow, not be crammed into words and broken. That much he knew, how he knew was another matter, but he knew that was not how it was supposed to go. As far as Alfred was concerned, Arthur was not learning how to use magic at all. In fact, he was learning something akin to slaughtering it.

As Arthur once more turned his attention to the papers on his desk Alfred ran through the scenarios in his mind that would fix Arthur's misconceptions about magic. The only one he could think of would be showing him true examples of it. That was both a simple and tricky thing at the same time. It was simple in that all Alfred had to do was to perform magic, but the tricky thing is communicating what actually happened. There would be a lot more going on than just not saying anything to harness the magic. The magic would flow and take care of everything on its own almost. It was also tricky because only Alfred seemed to realize this. Admittedly, the other dragons he knew did let magic flow, but they did not understand that was how it worked and from what Alfred understood, he would have to be "taught magic" when he was older. He had not met any of the older dragons at the school that Arthur talked about, but he could only imagine them breaking their own magic because they were taught to do so. In all honesty, the thought made him a little sick because it was like breaking his hand off to use it, not that he could get that across to anybody.

He had nearly thought himself into a hopeless depression when there was a loud knock on the door. Before Arthur could even rise from his chair a large grin broke across Alfred's lips; he already knew who it was. Arthur felt the pang of knowing reverberate through his body and hoped that Alfred was kind enough to warn him if it were Francis or anyone else of that sort at the door. Once he wrenched the handle open he quickly realized why Alfred had not been so kind, as before him stood little Matthew. Matthew was Alfred's clutch mate, Arthur had learned shortly after the bonding ceremony, and the two looked like identical twins. In all honesty, if Matthew did not have longer hair, a twirling curl in the place of Alfred's cowlick, and deep blue, almost violet, eyes then he would have thought they were the same dragon. At least he would have if they were standing still. Unlike Alfred, Matthew was shy and very soft spoken. In fact, it was very rare that he would go anywhere without his polar bear plushy his raiser had gotten him clutched tightly to his chest—speaking of his raiser, where on Earth was Francis? It was of course Arthur's luck that his most detested rival had been paired with Alfred's brother, so seeing him was not uncommon at all, much to Arthur's chagrin. In fact, the only thing weirder than seeing Matthew without his bear was seeing him without Francis.

"Matthew, where is Francis?" Arthur asked, kneeling down to the little boy's level as not to cause unneeded anxiety.

Arthur heard something mumbled from behind the plushy in front of Matthew's face and was about to ask him to repeat it when Alfred cut in, "He said Francis was in a hurry and needed someone to watch him, so he knocked on your door and left."

Already used to both Alfred's extraordinary hearing and his innate ability to connect with and understand Matthew, Arthur only concentrated on the eye twitch inducing message. The frog thought he could pawn his responsibilities off on him and get away with it? Did he think he was the only one stretched thin these days? If so, he should try keeping up with Alfred for just an hour for a change; now that would set him straight! Arthur finally ripped himself from his internal rant in favor of escorting Matthew inside and shutting the door behind him, after all, this was hardly his fault. In fact, he felt sorry enough for the child having to live with Francis for the rest of his youth.

"Alfred, could you play with Matthew?" asked Arthur, walking back over to his chair, "I still have a lot of homework and who knows when Francis is coming back."

Alfred nodded vigorously as he popped off the bed and ran to his brother's side, "Sure, I love playing with Mattie."

Before Arthur could even properly settle down to his work he heard the all telling sounds of a chest being opened and its contents being shuffled about. Arthur smiled to himself, knowing very well which two toys Alfred was looking for in his chest of wonders. The first would be a simple soldier. It was on the older side, being carved from wood, and did not even have a face. However, it had many movable joints and was painted to look like in was wearing some sort of flashy military uniform. Arthur could not understand for the life of him what made Alfred so attracted to it, it had even been Arthur's toy as a youngster and he had not cared for it even a fraction of what Alfred did. The second toy would be a purple, humanoid ragdoll. In all honesty, Arthur had no clue where Alfred had found the thing in the first place, much less know if it were a toy or not. All he knew was that it seemed to fit well with Alfred's favorite toy and it was the only thing Matthew would put down his bear to play with. Besides, who was he to complain if the two liked them so much?

A quick "ah" from Alfred signaled his find and another moment of shuffling before the chest's closing told Arthur the search was over. He listened attentively for the first few minutes, feeling Alfred's joy as the clicks of his toy tapping the floor sounded. He did not even have to turn around to know exactly what was happening, and, thusly, his attention dulled as he started to finally focus back on the papers in front of him. After a while, even Alfred's sound effects could not arouse him from his focus. That was when a sly grin snaked its way across Alfred's face.

"_Mattie!_"

Alfred's near mirror image gave him a knowing look, "_What are you up to?_"

Alfred's grin widened further, "_I want to show Artie true magic. You have to help me. Spells are not magic. But, if Artie knew what I was up to, I know he would try to stop me because humans just do not understand these kinds of things, especially since dragons barely do._"

Matthew seemed to ponder this a moment, chancing a glance at the man working calmly at his desk who had not been disturbed in the slightest by their conversation. Of course, that was expected. Unbeknownst to both Arthur and Francis the two brothers had a mental connection, one could even call it psychic. While most dragons could sense each other's presences with their five, and sometimes sixth, senses, Alfred and Matthew took that a step further. They could always find each other, share pain, and feel the other's emotions, like a contracted pair, and communicate mentally, which was something even a contracted pair could not do. It was a really odd connection, really. With dragon siblings they were either extremely connected, like Alfred and Matthew, or not even able to even recognize their relation. The latter was actually the most common case.

"_What is true magic again?_" Matthew began wearily.

He had heard Alfred's manifesto on his beliefs more times than Arthur had, and that was saying something! Still, he could barely grasp the concepts himself. The thought that magic would just follow a person's whims seems a little farfetched logically. But still, this was magic, and in his heart of hearts, Matthew _knew_ Alfred knew what he was talking about. Of course, that did not make it any easier for Matthew to understand and accept it. He supported his brother and would convert to his teachings the moment it made sense, but the task was on Alfred's shoulders to make it click.

Alfred rolled his dulling eyes, "_Flowing energy is the best way I can explain it—for the umpteenth time!_"

"_And how are you supposed to show Arthur that? We cannot even see magic, and only the highest level dragons can sense anything other than its presence._"

"_I honestly do not know… but I can try. It can be a trial and error thing. I will use magic, see if he gets it, and try another way next time._"

"_Alfred, he is bound to catch on—_"

"_But that is the great thing, Mattie! It will not matter after a while because dragons are expected to use magic, too. I just cannot let him know now because I am relying on the element of surprise. And, worst case scenario, no one understands and I become the strongest dragon here. Maybe then people will try to listen to what I am saying…_"

"_Alfred, we all listen, it just does not make sense to us like it does you…_"

By now the two brothers had long forgotten their imaginary game with the toys. They simply stared at each other, gazes locked, feeding off each other's utter frustration. The entire time this goes on, Arthur is none the wiser. Although he can sense Alfred's moods, he has to actually being paying some sort of attention to them, or not be tuning everything out, unless they are incredibly pronounced.

It was Matthew who crumbled first, "_So what is your plan, and why do you need me?_"

Alfred shed his unreadable mask, leaving the much more natural glowing smile in its place, "_A hero always needs his sidekick._"

Matthew's own lips curled into a soft smile at this, but it was short lived due a pounding at the door. Arthur was already bristling like maternal cat before the intruder spoke.

"Arthur, I know you are in there! If you 'ave not ratted me out to a teacher by now, then Matthew is in there with you, too." came the accented voice that made Arthur want to vomit.

Finally out of his seat and stalking towards the door, he suddenly stopped midway and crossed his arms, "And who says I haven't 'ratted you out,' as you so eloquently put it, hm?"

A soft chuckle met his ears as a response, "Because a teacher would 'ave nabbed me by now. Plus I would be able to feel Matthew's distress from being with strangers. Then the fact that 'is presence is emanating from your room 'elps."

Arthur audibly tsked at this and began to tap his foot in annoyance, "I hope you do not expect to get off easily, do you?"

Francis noticeably paused at this before responding, "What is it that you want?"

Arthur smirked at his victory, finally opening the door just to let the poor man learn exactly how wrong he was to cross Arthur Kirkland by the look on his face, "You will learn that you are not the only one that is having rough time these days, if I have anything to say about it. But of course, it is simple enough: watch Alfred for an hour."

Admittedly, from the look on Arthur's face Francis had been afraid—no, terrified was more like it, but now he was just plain confused. Since when did Arthur ever let Alfred out of his sight, much less for an entire hour, with him no less!?

From the sight of Francis's quirked eyebrows and speechlessness, Arthur explained further, "I will be observing you for safety measures of course, with Matthew by my side, but it is all up to you to watch Alfred."

Francis could still not believe what he is hearing, "Just for an 'our? No catches? With you watching Matthew?"

"None at all, Francis, and yes and yes, just for an hour. I doubt you could take anymore."

"'e is just one boy, Arthur—"

"And a word of warning, Francis."

Once again, the man in the doorway quirked an eyebrow, feeling a bit of a shiver running up his spine.

"Do not let him out of your sight, or you _will_ regret it."

Francis was at a loss for words as Matthew finally came over to him and silently asked to be picked up. Francis obliged and saw Arthur doing the same with his charge, a sickly sweet smile on his face. Strangely enough, Alfred had one of his own, but Francis was far more concerned with Arthur's.

"Good evening, Frog, Matthew." Arthur stated flatly, closing the door after nods of acknowledgement from the two, the smile never leaving his face.

Finally, he was going to teach Francis a lesson. Of course, it was only a small dose of difficult life of Arthur Kirkland, but it would have to do. Arthur was so caught up with his own glee that he hardly noticed Alfred staring at the door as if he could see through it, his own grin still plastered across his face. While Arthur plotted to teach Francis a lesson, Alfred planned to give Arthur one of his own, and now he knew Matthew was going to help him every step of the way. With those comforting thoughts, the two returned to the way they had before any of the interruptions, Arthur at his desk and Alfred in bed. With Arthur finding his studies going a lot smoother than before and Alfred finally slipping into the sleep that had evaded him earlier, everything felt right with the world. Too bad that never can last.


	4. Chapter 3

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 3, Growl

Bright, blue eyes stared into Francis's darker ones as he inspected the small child. From the way Arthur had acted the other day he had partially expected the young Alfred to have gone into a fit similar to that of demonic possession by now. However, that simply was not the case. No, instead the little boy sat quietly on the green grass of the school courtyard as he stared intently at his temporary babysitter; Arthur merely yards away with Matthew by his side. Francis had no idea what to make of this. There was always the possibility of Arthur overreacting, as per usual. The boy was rather uptight, so maybe he just was easily overrun by youthful energy. Then there was the possibility that Arthur had merely been trying to intimidate him, which he did quite well considering the prevalent dark bags under Francis's eyes, and this whole thing was a sham. The third option was the one Francis was dreading, and that was the demon merely had not had enough time to awaken yet. He knew Alfred was a dragon, but look at Matthew. They were both sweet little children, but surely there was some sane reason why Arthur always had Alfred in reaching distance? That once more brought up the question of why Francis was even allowed near the child in the first place. Arthur had made it quite clear what he felt about others trying to parent his dragon early on, especially him, and refused to count on anyone but himself to look after Alfred. It was not like he had many options in childcare anyway, but Arthur took it to the extreme it seemed. He had refused to allow the child any independence even, so they were always together. In conclusion, this whole scenario just did not make sense to Francis, who was still only half believing that it was actually happening.

Suddenly, Alfred spoke, "Why is Artie watching you, watching me?"

Francis sighed before letting a small smile grace his lips. Of course Alfred was as confused as he; this was completely new to him, too. Francis suddenly felt a little ridiculous for worrying in the first place. He had said it himself last night, Alfred was only one little boy. Arthur was just crazy, and the evidence was that he was observing him from "afar." Francis's smile turned into a slight smirk as he leaned down to the small child's ear. If Arthur wanted to play it that way, then he could play, too.

"Let me tell you a little secret, Alfred," the man whispered, pretending to give Arthur a nervous glance, "'e is afraid. You see, little one, Arthur is slowly turning you into 'im!"

Alfred blinked in surprise, "But Artie says humans do not have magic."

"You are right," the man agreed, still speaking into his ear, "But a 'uman does not have to have magic to find it. The food, Alfred! 'is scones, fish and chips, anything 'e makes you 'as been made using enchanted ingredients. In all 'onesty, it is a curse the man's family fell under to make them grumpy and stubborn. Now 'e intends to pass it on to you."

Alfred gasped at this. Was that really why Arthur acted like an old man, a curse? It sounded rather plausible to the hatchling.

Francis grinned at the sound and took it as a signal to continue, catching a curious look from the observing Arthur, "And 'e is afraid because I 'ave the antidote, I put it into my cooking, which is why it is the best. I cook with liberty and freedom after all."

Alfred nodded shakily, tears welling in his eyes, "I do not want to turn into a grumpy old man—but we have to save Artie! You have to give me the antidote."

Francis's grin widened further, this was going even better than expected, "Alas, I can make the antidote, but 'e will not eat it. You see it is also a part of the curse. Only a true 'ero can cure him. Alfred, I think you are that 'ero. All you 'ave to do is ask for my cooking, and whatever you do, do not eat 'is. I know you can do it."

Suddenly Alfred's tears dried up and his gaze turned solemn, "I swear I will cure Artie if it is the last thing I do!"

Whether it was Alfred's seriousness, or simply his utter success, Francis had no clue, but he could not control himself any longer. He quickly covered his mouth and sunk to the ground as chuckles ripped through his body. Apparently that had been the final straw before Arthur's curiosity pushed him to check on the temporary sitter.

"What has happened to you?" he hissed, "It has not even been ten minutes yet and you are already cracking up?"

Francis shook his head desperately, a new wave of chuckles forming at the thought of being driven to insanity by the child, "Arthur, you are crazy, and you were far before Alfred came into your life. The boy is 'armless."

Arthur quirked an eyebrow at this, "I never said he was dangerous."

Francis could not help but scoff at this, "You were threatening me last night! 'Do not let him out of your sight, or you _will_ regret it.' You said. _He_ has not taken his eyes off of me, Arthur!"

Arthur was about to launch a retort at the man when he felt a weak, though firm tug on his pant leg. Looking down he realized that he had forgotten all about watching Matthew, who was trying to get his attention. He felt guilt bubble in his stomach, but was quick to hide it.

"What is it, Matthew?" he asked softly.

"Where did Alfred go?" the young hatchling asked, looking around as if to prove his point.

Both Arthur and Francis immediately paled at this, snapping their own heads about in attempts to catch sight of the boy no longer visible in the grassy courtyard. When neither was successful Arthur started to tremble. This was bad, very bad, and Francis knew it. The sheer panic in Arthur's eyes told Francis he could not feel the child's location. In all honesty, that could simply be blocked by Arthur's own panic, but it could also mean much worse. Taking a quick step back, Francis raised his hands submissively and hopefully soothingly.

"Arthur," he began, "I will look for Alfred. Calm down and watch Matthew. Alfred is my responsibility for the 'our."

If looks could kill Francis would have dropped dead before Arthur's blazing green eyes could even land on him, "_Your_ responsibility? He is _my_ dragon, my child! He was never once _your _responsibility, which was why I was _watching _you."

Francis shivered at the coldness of his voice, but recognized the truth in every word, "Fine, blame yourself, but I am looking for Alfred and you are watching Matthew. You 'ave even upset him now. Both of you calm down, since I doubt you could 'elp find him like this anyway. I will bring 'im to your dorm room when I find him."

With that and a soft smile for a sniffling Matthew, Francis took off to the far corners of the courtyard to look for the hatching. He had not even spared a second glance to see if Arthur followed his orders. His main priority right now as finding the little devil that had managed to disappear in seconds' time. If that was not magic, Francis did not know what was. The thought stopped Francis dead in his tracks. Was that what Arthur had been warning him about, Alfred's little disappearing habit? It would make sense since he would regret it if he looked away and then Arthur would definitely have to keep him close. The pieces fit so well together that Francis somewhat wanted to slap himself, but he was jumping to conclusions a lot lately. Maybe this was hardly normal behavior; after all, Arthur was pretty distraught. In a quick fit of desperation he physically shook all of these thoughts from his head. This was not the time to be contemplating life's mysteries, he needed to be looking for Alfred!

"Are you sure about this, Alfred?" began an exasperated voice.

"Of course, Lovi." the child answered with a wide smile.

Said Lovi rolled his chocolate eyes, taking in the sight of all the greenery around them. Despite never being in a forest previously in their lives, it felt quite homey in the one just a distance from school grounds to the both of them. That was probably why Lovi was not getting as temperamental as usual.

"Fine, and call me by my name: Lovino!" the child growled half-heartedly.

Alfred could not help but chuckle, "Thanks. I mean, you had to trick Antonio and everything."

Lovino snorted at the mention of his raiser, "No problem, he could use a good lesson, too."

Alfred nodded fiercely. It seemed that all the raisers needed a lesson for one reason or another. If anything, Alfred wanted _everyone_ to know how magic really worked. Of course, he was simply settling for Arthur at the moment. In all actuality, due to his recent discovery of Arthur's curse it had only motivated him further. If Arthur learned how to use magic properly, then maybe he could break his curse all on his own. Alfred would still be Arthur's hero, but he would not have to bruise Arthur's pride by insulting his cooking then. He really wanted to avoid upsetting him if at all possible, because, cursed or not, Arthur was still Arthur and Alfred cared about him.

"This worked out better than I planned…" mumbled Alfred, casually plodding over to one of the many trees and inspecting it, "I mean Matthew did not even have to be a distraction… Then you had some free time… There was no trouble getting through the school and to the forest… It just seems too easy."

Lovino paused to think about this. Alfred was right, especially since they all seemed to always have the worst of luck. This was way too easy for his liking, even on his part. He had just gotten into a little squabble with Antonio and happened to run into Alfred the moment he hit the hallway. He did not even hesitate to come with Alfred and listen to his little scheme. In all honesty, he had no idea what to make of Alfred's magic spiel and did not really care at the moment, but if it would freak out his raiser he was all for it. That was why those words were starting to make him nervous. Were they missing something or was something bad just going to happen? Lovino really hoped neither, because, as much as he did not like to admit it, there were some things that really scared him out there.

"We just have to be careful, I guess…" he muttered, "So what are you going to do anyway, what kind of magic?"

Alfred finally looked away from the base of the tree he had been face to face with and shrugged at Lovino, whom promptly rolled his eyes in response. Of course Alfred did not know yet. He could scheme flawlessly, yet leave out crucial details like that as if it were no big deal. Admittedly, it seems they had not been yet, but Lovino did not want to be there the one day they were. With that he sighed and started to pay a little more attention to Alfred, who was actually being quiet.

"What is up with the tree?" he asked, taking a step towards it, but his head tilting up to stare into the dense canopy that towered above the both of them, "It looks like all the others around here."

To this Alfred shrugged again, "It is, but there are not many trees on the school grounds. I tried to climb one once, but Artie caught me before I could even make it halfway, and those trees were much smaller than these. Hey, Lovi, I know we came here to plan and stuff, but just for a second I want to get to the top of this thing."

Lovino hesitated at this. He knew whatever he said Alfred was going to climb that tree, but that would not make him feel any better when Alfred hurt himself—or when he had to explain to Arthur that Alfred hurt himself. So, the little dragon had to muster up some courage for his slight nod, which sent the other dragon shimmying up the tree like he had done it all his life. Alfred had not been kidding when he had said just a second, he scaled the plant with ease and before Lovino could blink he was in the top branches.

"Hey, this is awesome!" he yelled down from his perch, "The sky is so blue today. We could not see it down there, but up here—Hey, I can see the entire school from here! I wonder what everybody is doing. Do you think we could play with Kiku, Emil, Ivan, and Ludwig after this?"

"Focus, Al!" Lovino responded, a little unnerved by just how high Alfred really was, "You might as well come down if this is not helping you think."

With a sigh, Alfred was about to do just that before something in the sky caught his attention. He raised a small hand to his forehead, to block out the sun, and strained to distinguish the details of said figure. From what little he could tell, it was pretty high up and coming his way. It had to be moving pretty fast, too, because the details were starting to become visible rapidly.

"It's a dragon." he mouthed, his azure eyes widening with both awe and curiosity.

If Alfred had been anyone else, he might have wanted to go back down the tree as quick as possible with a dragon getting closer, but that was not Alfred. He actually climbed higher, trying to get to the very tip top of the tree. Everything else was forgotten as he clambered to see more of the figure. Both of his previous emotions melted away as now burned a crippling envy in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to fly just like the soaring dragon that was so close to him now. He wanted to feel the air all around him, the sweeping currents, to have the sky as his domain, to be _free_. He felt it all burning in his stomach as one massive desire, which distracted him to the point of not noticing the dragon's faltering above him. Admittedly, this dragon was hardly graceful, so it had to be one of the newly independent creatures just getting used to its true form. That meant that this creature no longer depended on a raiser, and not necessarily because it did not want, or even need, to, which could spell out some very dangerous things for a young dragon, especially one so conspicuously perched above the forest canopy.

Lovino had no idea what was even going on, why Alfred had been ignoring him or why he had climbed higher until he heard the cry or shock he emitted, followed by a _growl_. Lovino glimpsed the claws that picked up Alfred as they did their deed and pulled him into the sky with his captor and, all at once, he cried out himself. He screamed and yelled for the beast to drop his friend, that he was one of his own kind, but to no avail. He was reduced to begging by the time he saw that the beast was out of earshot through the cracks of light in the forest canopy. That was when Lovino did the only thing he could think of, the one thing that he knew he was really good at, he ran.


	5. Chapter 4

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 4, Angel

"Lovi! I am sorry, my little tomato, won't you please come out now?" called Antonio, pausing to rub his dark brown hair, "Now where could he have gone?"

It had been a minor little tiff that had led to this. Antonio, as usual, was caught up in how adorable his little charge was. All the raisers thought the same of their own dragons, but Antonio was convinced Lovino was the cutest. It was also common among the raisers to do things to make their dragons cuter, such as dressing them up among other things to take pictures. That is what caused the problem. While most of the raisers had been perfectly fine with allowing their charges to run around in their magical, white birth garments, Antonio had not. In fact, he was starting to take the whole little dress up game to the extreme. When he finally pulled out the pink dress, Lovino had had enough. It was not like he had been compliant with wearing all the strange outfits before, but cross dressing was what set it all over the top. The little dragon threw a fit, saying words that would even make Antonio blush before racing out of their shared room.

"I always wondered where he learned to say those things…" he pondered aloud as he started up again on his stroll through the long hallway.

At times like this he was really grateful that the dragon raisers had dorms away from all the other students. He had not really thought he would need it when he first found out, but he guessed they really did need their space. It would also be terrible for kids as little as the dragons to be caught in a crowd of students. This was a large academy filled to the brim with attendees after all. With that thought Antonio came to a stop again in the stone hallway. Lovino would not have wondered off toward all of the school buildings, would he? Antonio really hoped not, but it would explain why the child had not come back yet. The school grounds were incredibly large on their own and trying to find a way through a crowd of students among the buildings that all looked almost exactly alike was a challenge for anyone. Antonio shuddered at the mere thought of Lovino being trampled on his quest. Knowing Lovino like he did, he was sure the young dragon would be so mad he would have gone anywhere and would probably think that his few trips with Antonio to his classes would constitute enough knowledge to navigate all of the school grounds properly. Antonio's stomach sunk further as he realized that his both shy and prideful dragon would probably never attempt to ask for directions, let alone ask to be taken back to his raiser.

Antonio shook away the negative thoughts weighing him down in an instant. This was hardly helping him find Lovino, standing in the hallway paralyzed with worry. He just had to start searching and keep at it until he found him. He nodded in agreement with himself as he continued down the hall as it dawned on him where exactly it led.

"The courtyard!" he cried, picking up the pace with newfound hope, "Of course, this should have been the first place I looked. It is nice and quiet, and where all the little dragons play. I bet he is playing with someone like Alfred right now."

Once he reached the edge of the stone flooring and the sea of short, maintained grass he had broken into a full on run as he darted far enough in to take a look around. There he stood, bathed in sunlight that accented his tan skin, while he scanned the area. This courtyard was a part of the dragon raiser dorms, so it was rather large to accommodate the growing beasts. Despite that and the various amounts of greenery that could hide a sulking dragon, Antonio had been optimistic about his chances of spotting Lovino with ease. That hope was dashed rather quickly when he realized he was alone in the courtyard—well, almost.

"Francis!" he yelled, catching sight of the blood man as searched through shrubbery and running up to him, "What are you up to?"

Francis paused a moment, long enough for Antonio to go wide-eyed at his appearance. Francis's clothes were torn and covered with dirt among other stains. Antonio could honestly say that Francis had never looked this bad, even after being jumped by a couple of guys who did not like that he was flirting with their sister. He always took very special care of his appearance, his hair most of all, but his clothes a close second. He really had to considering they were designer and replacing them would cost a fortune. What was more is that he was not skulking to his room. Francis _never _let anyone see him looking unpresentable, much less actually stay in a public place.

"_Playing_ 'ide and seek with Alfred." Francis breathed flatly, standing up and brushing himself off.

Antonio instinctively took a step back from his best friend, who was quite frankly scaring him, but decided to play along, "Oh, tell me little Lovi joined you guys, because I cannot find him."

Francis seemed to get a bit of his old personality back from this, "Lovino is missing?"

Antonio nodded, searching Francis's worry stained eyes. He really did look exhausted, Francis. Not only were his clothes in disarray, but he had bags under his eyes from this morning, and Antonio was starting to realize that his _hair _of all things was disheveled. Earlier that day he had mentioned to him and Gilbert that he had not gotten any sleep and when they asked why he had merely brushed them off, muttering something about having plans this afternoon.

Finally, Francis sighed, "Then you and I are in the same boat."

Suddenly it all made sense to Antonio, "Something happened to Matthew!?"

Francis smiled weakly at this, "Non, Alfred is missing. I was supposed to watch him today and 'e disappeared. Arthur is an utter mess because of it, Matthew, too."

"Since when were you _allowed_ to watch Alfred?" Antonio questioned, in utter shock, "I mean Arthur never lets _anyone_ watch Alfred. I offered one evening when he had student council work and Lovi did not want to stop playing yet, and he shot me down without a second thought. Lovino threw a tantrum and cried the whole way back."

Francis's smile turned into something of a sneer at this, "Since I was scheduled to be taught a lesson, but enough with this. Let's look together. Two heads are better than one, non? We will have a better chance of finding them then."

Antonio's mind took a minute to process everything before he finally got his priorities straight and nodded. He needed to focus now more than ever. Two baby dragons, not even two weeks old, were lost and alone on a gigantic campus. Heavens forbid if they had gone towards the woods. This academy was rather secluded so it was surrounded by miles on top of miles of wilderness. That was the last place either of the two babies needed to be.

"Let's go—OH!" Antonio choked, his back hitting the ground hard from a heavy impact to the stomach.

"Toni!" the mass sobbed, clutching Antonio's white, cotton shirt and thoroughly soaking it, "A-Al-Alfred! It got Alfred, Toni. You have to-a save him!"

"L-Lovino?" Antonio stuttered, trying to get back the breath that had been knocked out of him, "What are you talking about? What is _it_?"

Lovino met his raiser's gaze with puffy, bloodshot eyes as he sat firmly on his stomach. Despite everything, Antonio could see his skin turning tomato red. If he could not feel Lovino's emotions he would have assumed it had been embarrassment, especially with Francis being here stunned silent, but instead it was pure, unadulterated rage. Antonio could not recall a time he had felt anger so strong, and he was only getting a fraction of it through the bond. Before Antonio could even process this emotion, much less get used to it, Lovino made a sudden, jerky movement. Antonio had expected to be hit from the sheer power of Lovino's emotions and had flinched, closing his sea green eyes in anticipation of it, but when he opened them again he saw that Lovino was pointing one little finger skyward. Without further ado, both he and Francis followed his finger and saw something that seemed to bring the whole world crashing around them: in the sky was a large, floundering dragon with what looked to be a golden blond toddler in its deadly grasp. With it, Francis practically saw his death warrant.

"Alfred!" the man screeched, not quite sure what exactly to do with himself as the dragon hovered in the skies above, "Antonio, get a teacher. I will try to do _something _in the meantime. And take Lovino with you, the last thing we need is another hostage!"

Antonio did not need to be told twice as he bolted off the ground, securing Lovino safely in his grasp, and running at top speed towards the main school buildings. Francis watched until he was sure Antonio was a safe distance before he focused all of his attention on the two dragons above him. He was in luck really, the large dragon could technically fly off wherever it pleased, but it was staying right above the courtyard. It suddenly occurred to Francis that there might be a reason for that, the very reason Francis was bothering at all to heckle the beast.

"Alfred, are you alright!?" he screamed, hoping desperately that it would reach the child that he was sure was fighting against his captor, "Do not move, mon petit, you will only anger it! I will get you down, Alfred, do not worry."

At the sound of his voice, Francis could have sworn that he saw the little boy shift. Hope rose into his throat and he was about to shout again before the world seemed to stop turning. Bright blue flashes of electricity burst from the captor dragon's grasp and wrapped around its body like an eel. Francis watched in silence, his voice stolen by the realization that Alfred was emitting the electricity himself. In what could have been milliseconds or days in that timeless environment the larger dragon dropped Alfred with a cry of pain. Francis wanted more than anything to catch the plummeting child as he fell from heights that no human could survive, but his body was as frozen as time itself. Not that little Alfred needed saving. Mid-fall large, feathery wings erupted from the child's back, releasing a spray of pure white feathers that most would attribute to an angel, and helped the small figure glide back to earth with unearthly grace. With his small feet safely back on the ground the little boy flapped his wings for good measure and smiled a smile that could overtake the sun.

"You called?" he asked with an innocent head tilt, accenting his angelic appearance of white wings and white clothing with an even more pure aura.

From his stance, Francis could see that Alfred's wings had not torn through his birth garments, but rather passed through them like a ghost. They were the magical clothing that he was born with, and it would only make sense because baby dragons could sometimes show the features of their adult forms, such as claws, fangs, slit pupils, tails, and apparently even _wings_, but it still did not sit quite well with Francis. It reminded him that Alfred and Matthew really were not human, not even close, and he did not really like the thought of that. He had always known in the back of his mind, but he was very rarely confronted with it like now. Suddenly he noticed that Alfred's eyes widened and his smile gained even more wattage. That was not a good sign.

"Artie!" the boy squealed, rushing past Francis whom had yet to gather the guts to turn around, "So much happened today that I absolutely _have _to tell you! You see—Artie? Are you okay? You did not get hurt while I was gone did you?"

From the transformation of Alfred's voice and the sound effects coming from behind him, Francis could picture the scene. The rustling of clothing and the quiet child could only mean that he was caught in an embrace. Francis had a sneaking suspicion that the child had also gone quiet in worry, and when he finally spun to meet Arthur face on his suspicions were confirmed. His rival's cheeks were streaked with streaming tears and Francis knew there was absolutely no hope that he had not seen what all had gone on in the courtyard. A voice in Francis's head told him that he had been watched searching as well, but he pushed it aside as he waited for Arthur to calm enough to be spoken to.

"O-ow, Artie, you are hurting me." whined the child in the ever tightening embrace, though he dared not struggle.

"Do you know what could have happened to you?" his raiser stated more than asked, surprisingly clear and concisely, though with a soft voice, through the tears, "Where did you even go? _Why_ did you go?"

Alfred swallowed a lump in his throat. It was now or never, and he had always prided himself in his honesty, as tempting as it would be to brush it all off. Heroes did not lie, and if he did it was like admitting he had did something wrong. Even if he had, he had not meant to so there was nothing for him to hide.

"I wanted to show you magic." he began, causing Arthur's breath to hitch, "I know you did not understand what we were talking about the other day, so I wanted to try and show you. I did not know what to do so one thing led to another and I ended up in the forest with Lovi. I climbed a tree and saw that dragon, and I guess he saw me because he picked me up and flew away. When I saw the courtyard I started to struggle, but only when I heard Francis did I have the power to break free. Then I got my wings while I was falling. If I cannot explain magic with that then I have no idea what else to do."

Arthur's face was completely unreadable with his eyes hidden behind his unruly, blond hair. So when he gulped, Francis prepared himself for anything and was sincerely hoping Alfred had done the same.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again!" the raiser burst, "You went to the _forest_!? Do you have any idea how dangerous that place is? It is like a race to see whether or not you get lost or eaten first! What is more is that you planned this whole thing instead of your usual wandering. You _purposefully _ran away from me!"

By now Alfred was the one crying and Francis tensed watching his small body contort in what looked like pain. It suddenly hit Francis that that was exactly what it was. Among the abilities of the raisers given with the contracts were the abilities to scold, praise, and command their charges. Scolding, which could simply be triggered with raw emotion, sent waves of pain to punish the misbehaving child. The main downfall of this is that the raiser had to bear a fraction of the pain as well because of pain sharing. The same was of praising, where joy was directly given to the child to encourage them. Finally, the charges could be bound to commands like spells bound magic. In all honesty, Francis had namely just read about these abilities because it was one of those things that were taught with experience, but he had personally only used praise once and by accident. Watching Alfred squirm in Arthur's arms made him hope that he never wanted to scold Matthew like that. Regardless, the punishment was over quickly, along with Arthur's rant and Alfred's squirming. It only took a little while longer before Arthur to calm down enough to actually care that Francis was still present.

"What do you want, Frog?" he hissed roughly, readjusting his hold on Alfred whom had cried out the last of his energy and now in a deep sleep, wings long retracted, "I should kill you, you know. He was in a world of danger this entire time and you did not even move to catch him as he fell."

Francis paused in what Arthur had assumed was fear before he spoke, "I am sorry, Arthur. You are right, and were all along. I regret taking my eyes off of him and I am sorry for pushing my responsibilities onto the other day. I know now that you have plenty to deal with."

With Arthur sufficiently silenced and small smile gracing his lips, Francis walked past Arthur, undoubtedly on his way to fetch Matthew. Arthur could only stare at him until he was out of sight. Apparently Arthur—he stole a quick glance down at his charge. Apparently Alfred had taught him that lesson. Arthur sighed, rubbing Alfred's back. He should have been feeling pretty victorious right now, but he did not feel that way at all. Slowly, he glanced down at his watch and blinked in surprise.

"The hour is not even up yet…" he murmured, looking over Alfred, who somehow had gotten one of his white feathers attached to his hair, finally allowed a small smile to creep onto his lips, "Insane, am I, hm? Well, Frog, I cannot really say one way or another anymore, because with each passing day I am becoming more convinced that I am raising an angel that fell from the heavens."


	6. Chapter 5

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 5, Lunch

Angels flew away from the people they watched over, did they not? They had to. Did they fly from person to person as needed, or did they stay with one person until they were not needed anymore? Arthur had never really contemplated this before, but he could not escape the thoughts now. Since the little dragon incident that had given his young ward wings, Alfred had become obsessed with flying. The child would climb on objects of varying heights, from buildings to step stools, and launch himself into the air in a showy display of feathers. However, these feathery wings resembled that of a flying squirrel's rather than a bird's when it came to use. They merely let him glide safely to the ground no matter how hard he flapped them, and the child was getting seriously fed up with it. Of course, he was not the only one. Arthur's heart stopped with every launch and would not start beating again until Alfred was safely on the ground. He had tried scolding, punishing, reasoning, and even begging, but nothing seemed to be able to deter the toddler. Arthur just could not grasp why Alfred was so dead set on being in the sky when the ground was so much closer and safer.

"But angels leave the safety of heaven to watch after their people, don't they?" Arthur murmured mindlessly with his face propped up by his arm as he stared across the tables in the room.

"What did you say?"

At once Arthur's world came back into perspective at the words of his charge, and so he focused on the tiny figure seated beside him with a curious twinkle in his sky-colored eyes, "Nothing, Alfred. Now then, where were we?"

Alfred quirked an eyebrow in surprise, but said nothing more on the strangeness of the matter, "It is lunchtime and you were supposed to go get us something to eat, but then you zoned out."

Arthur simply sat there blinking for a good five minutes before he rocketed out of his seat. How could he have forgotten that it was lunchtime, especially when he could feel Alfred's hunger eating away at him as well as his own? Well, Alfred was always hungry so Arthur was always hungry, too, but still! None of this was any excuse to neglect the child.

"I am sorry, poppet. I will be as quick as I can." he apologized, glancing across the room he now recognized as the lunch room.

It was rather crowded at the time, but it could be a lot worse sense most people ate outside. Of course, it was worse today than usual for one simple fact: Alfred and Arthur were here. Apparently when that little act with Alfred and his electricity happened yesterday Antonio had a teacher at his heels on the way back to the scene. Both saw the entire thing, angel wings and all, and now rumors had spread far and wide throughout the school. Alfred was deemed the most powerful new dragon to the program, and thus Arthur was the most powerful new raiser. Because of that people now viewed him with a mix of fear and fascination. There was enough fear for most students not to speak to him and give him space, but there was also enough fascination that they crowded around him, entrapping him in a bubble of sorts. What was more is that this kind of treatment was more reserved for Arthur instead of Alfred. Although the young dragon was the actual powerhouse here, his charisma still had all of the students fawning all over him. It drove Arthur absolutely crazy, and that was what he was confronted with now. He was caught in that bubble with people surrounding him at all sides, knowing they would rush Alfred the second he left. Not that he planned on leaving the child. No sir, not a chance after that incident and the newfound desire for flight! Still, this people barrier was a challenge.

"Alfred, come here." he commanded, though softly, and the child complied without any fuss as he picked him up, "Hold on tight, who knows what will happen with this mob."

With that said, and a now firm grip on the child, Arthur began his march. The crowd moved to accommodate him and his movements, but never actually broke the bubble. Arthur tsked at their persistence as he picked up the pace. Oh, how he would have loved to have cooked something for himself and Alfred instead of fighting everyone for school food, but for some odd reason Alfred would no longer eat his cooking. Although Arthur refused to admit it, he realized that his food was not to everyone's taste, but Alfred ate it just fine until that day in the courtyard. Now whenever Arthur asked why he had stopped, he would break out into mumbling some kind of encrypted chant. The only words Arthur had so far been able to distinguish so far were "old man" and "curse." Arthur really hoped it was just the leftover stress talking. Regardless, he had to get Alfred to eat _something_ and it was either a school provided meal or mail order junk food. Arthur chose the healthier and less expensive option, so they were both on a diet of school food and that meant fighting all the other students for their meals. It was beginning to become more of a hassle than Arthur had previously thought possible, especially with all of these twits around, and Arthur was just about to tell them such when it was impossible to see that day's menu through them.

"Hey Artie, Luddy is over there. Gil, too. Can we eat with them, pretty please?" begged the child, pointing furiously through a small opening in the crowd over to an albino student and his dragon charge.

If Gilbert had been anywhere near his best friends, Francis and Antonio, at the moment Arthur would have shushed the child and continued on his merry way telling-off fellow students, however, he was alone. Arthur may not have been able to take the other two with all of his built up frustration from the day, but he had always been the friendliest with Gilbert out of the three. Although they were all loud and obnoxious, Antonio and Francis were like that naturally. Gilbert was actually toned down when not combined with his miscreant friends. It also did not hurt that Alfred and Ludwig were quite friendly with each other. Their aura fed the friendly atmosphere between the two and allowed for civilized conversation, and that was the kind of calming thing Arthur really needed right now.

It took only a second when their gazes met that Gilbert realized the exact same thing and came to the rescue. Like Arthur, Gilbert was a tad bit feared by the rest of the school population. Being albino sure did not help matters, but his bluntness and domineering personality were what really did it. Most people were overrun with that kind of thing, but Arthur grew up with loads of people like that. Gilbert's presence quickly had the intended effect in the dissipation of the crowd and the breaking of the bubble. Apparently when there were two of them it was just too risky to be poking around.

"Thanks." Arthur managed, but genuinely so, "Now I have to feed Alfred, but wait there and we can sit."

"Ja, but let's go outside. I am sure Ludwig and Alfred would want to play afterwards." he answered, smirking triumphantly at the newfound twinkle in Alfred's eyes.

"I suppose it would not hurt…" Arthur mumbled, catching a similar shine in Ludwig's gaze as he rushed to the side of his raiser.

With no time wasted Arthur quickly moved to the counter and ordered their food. Unlike Alfred, he actually did not eat all that much, even with the newfound hunger coming from the bond with his dragon. Admittedly, he ate more now than before, but simply because of all the new exercise he was getting in due to the antics of a certain mischievous child. With that in mind he ordered himself a simple fish and chips meal, which he was grateful it was on the menu that was always available, and two chicken tender meals for Alfred from the same menu. Of course, he could not stop there with this child, heavens no. Today's lunch special happened to a hamburger meal, which was usually available anyway, but with the added choice of up to five patties and bacon on top of the usual condiments. It also was only slightly more expensive than the usual hamburger meal, and Alfred would throw a fit before Arthur was allowed to pass that up. With three of those, five patties and everything else added, rung up, and Arthur thankful that they came with sides of fries as not to give Alfred more options, the two moved onto desserts and drinks. Arthur ordered one cup of earl gray tea for himself and then found himself pestered by the child for a soft drink, to which he completely caved and found himself with both a can of Coca-Cola and a can of Pepsi on his tray. Why Alfred could not pick one over the other and had to have both, Arthur will never know. Still, the real war always began when it came to dessert. Alfred's infatuation, more like addiction, with junk food was beyond help and it always became a struggle to get Alfred to eat healthily. For every healthy meal Arthur forced down his throat there was mountain of sweets he could consume after. These were the woes of the parent of a bottomless pit. So began the struggle of exactly how many sweets Alfred could get away with having. He practically read off the entire menu in his begging, which Arthur was used to, and so he began the practice he had developed in response when he was in no mood to fight: choose a random number and then pick a random dessert off the menu. Due to complete whimsy, Alfred ended up with three slices of strawberry shortcake. At least it kept him quiet.

Gilbert chuckled at the sight of all of food in Arthur's arms when he returned, "Trying to feed an army?"

"Just one Alfred." Arthur mused dryly, watching as Alfred fled from his side as quickly they had made it to the lunch table and began chatting animatedly with the stoic faced Ludwig, "We should probably hurry. Lunch will be over before we know it."

Gilbert merely shrugged at this and motioned for the small dragons to follow as he led the way into outdoor lunch area. Arthur followed dutifully at the rear, keeping an eye on the two dragons as they swerved in and out of the path directly behind Gilbert. It seemed as though they were already engrossed in a game of some sort and it made Arthur smile. Of course, finding a spot to eat outside was a difficult thing. The majority of people did eat outside, after all, and although it was bigger than the lunch room it was crowded. The best spots were always taken, normally before lunch even officially began, so now it was only a matter of finding somewhere slightly peaceful and secluded, which was no small task. Lucky for them, together their fear element drove students away in hordes. It took a little doing, but they successfully managed to clear away a place to eat in peace. It seemed like after Arthur had only taken his first bite Alfred had already finished his entire meal. This was nothing new, but it shocked Arthur every time nonetheless. Despite all the time Alfred spent eating, in all technicality Arthur had never actually seen him eat anything. Gilbert once more laughed at Arthur's face as Alfred ran off to play a short distance away with Ludwig.

"I guess it is a good thing we ate early." he teased, watching as the two dragons began to chase each other back and forth, "They both are really something, aren't they?"

Arthur nodded, eyes firmly glued to the kids as he continued to eat, "What yet, I am not exactly sure."

Gilbert smirked at this, "Why, powerful dragons, don't you know? I mean, Alfred has already harnessed electricity, a secondary element."

"Do not start on that Gilbert." Arthur growled, "I have already heard enough from all of their whispering. Even my homeroom teacher has talked to me about it. I know Alfred is powerful, that he should not be able to do anything like that yet if at all in the first place. Only certain dragons can used secondary elements and they normally only start to get the hang of it after they are independent. I have heard it all before."

"Oh, do not get your shorts in a twist. It is nothing bad, except if you have a weak body. His strength means you can do spells that most people can only dream of." Gilbert stated, looking up into the sky, "You know, after that incident I overheard some teachers talking. It seems that the headmaster has a running bet on who the top dragons are."

Arthur finally broke his stare away from the dragons long enough to glance at Gilbert curiously, "Who are they?"

"Surprise, surprise! Alfred was on that list. It makes you wonder what he does not tell us. Another one is Mathias's Ivan."

"Mathias?" Arthur began, "I cannot really say it surprises me, though. Ivan has one of those auras about him. I should know considering that he is left with Lukas and Emil pretty often. I just cannot say that I really trust that man with such a powerful dragon."

Gilbert shook his head at this, "What are you talking about? Mathias is awesome, not as awesome as me, but awesome nonetheless. Plus he is a part of the Student Voice Committee with me. You just listen to what your vice president tells you."

"I have actually met the man, Gilbert, and Lukas would know best, they are cousins, and he makes a great vice president for that matter. Plus, as far as I am concerned, you and all your friends in that Student Voice Committee are a bunch of hooligans that incite riots and protests for no reason. The student council is what is supposed to connect the students and the administration and you all are mucking that up."

"The moment the administration started appointing the student council members you became puppets of the system." Gilbert explained with a prominent eye roll, "You represent the teachers to the students, just not the other way around, so we have to represent the students to the teachers. How can we be expected to be happy if our voices are not represented properly?"

Arthur's eye twitched at the thought of where this conversation was going, "You make it sound like there is going to be a bloody revolution! That is simply—on second thought, knowing you and your associates, I suggest you end it there, Gilbert, if there is any possibility. The last thing we want is for these children to get wrapped up in this, and if Alfred acts any bloody stranger I will personally be coming after you, Francis, and Antonio, because that is the only thing I can think to be causing it. Now, who was the other dragon on the list?"

It took Gilbert a minute to process all of the words, but when he did he spoke, "It was Luddy, actually. I cannot say I am surprised about that one either. Alfred, Ivan, and Ludwig make quite a trio if you ask me. We have all seen them playing together. Even if Emil, Lovino, and Kiku are right there in the fray there is something different between those three. They are a lot more physical with each other if you have not noticed. Wait until they are bigger, then it will be a full on brawl for whose on top."

In fact, Arthur had noticed. He could not say he really liked it either and imagining it getting worse with age certainly did not help. He returned his gaze to the playing dragons, which were now in some sort of a wrestling match that had completely turned both of their blond heads of hair into nests of leaves, twigs, and grass. It really was different with them. Alfred would never play that roughly with Matthew, as much as the rowdy child would want to, and he would spare that same courtesy to the meeker dragons. He still played with everyone and was friendly nonetheless, but it seemed there were certain levels of connection, each one with him cutting loose a little more. His hyper energy still showed, regardless, as well as his strength, but he was actually rather accommodating. That was especially true with humans, Arthur noticed. He guessed they were the weakest of them all. A ringing bell suddenly resounded throughout the entire grounds, causing Arthur to stir from his thoughts.

"Lunch is over then…" Gilbert grumbled, snatching up Ludwig as the two dragons rushed to their raisers, "Well, that was a good talk then. Do not forget our magic classes start tonight, Arthur."

Arthur rolled his eyes as he piled the cafeteria dishes back on the plate, thankful that he had not been too preoccupied with his conversation to finish eating, "You do not have to remind me. Our grace period is finally up and the physical strain of dragon raising officially begins."

Gilbert nodded, his usual smirk in place, and darted off to what Arthur hoped was class. As his figure disappeared, Arthur could see that Ludwig was squirming in his arms as he tried to wave to his friend. With a slight smile he watched Alfred wave goodbye in return for a minute before shifting his focus entirely on the tray.

"Now stay close, Alfred. After we return the dishes we have to go back to class." he explained, watching the dragon for a response.

Said dragon sighed, "Again? Can't you drop me off back at the dorm? Class is so boring, and I have to be quiet and sit still! I do not know how you do it all day. Luddy said a while ago that you guys were planning on taking turns watching all of us during your breaks from class. If that happens, I can play with everybody instead. What happened to that?"

"A certain hatchling happened to wonder off into the woods and found himself a heap of trouble; _that_ is what happened." Arthur huffed dryly, watching Alfred's face contort into a pout.

"I only wanted to show you how to use magic properly," the child muttered, kicking at the ground in front of him, "How was I supposed to know I would get kidnapped? And you still did not get it. I have to try something else."

Arthur's heart stopped at the mere thought of another stunt like that from the child and he wet his lips nervously before speaking, "Alfred, why do you feel like I have to understand this? Last time I checked, even Matthew does not."

Arthur watched as Alfred's face went through a sea of emotions. He could feel exactly how mixed up the boy was on the subject, but it finally faded into an internal debate of some sort. Finally, a side won and Arthur prepared himself for whatever would come out of his charge's mouth. Said charge did not look all too thrilled at what he had to say, but was going to speak anyway.

"I will not lie to you, Artie," the child stated firmly, determination burning in his eyes, "I want to help you, I really do, but I think you could get rid of the curse better than I can. I have been trying and nothing has happened."

Wait, what? Okay, Arthur had not been prepared for that. What curse?

"And I did everything Francis said, too…"

Okay, now it all made sense.

"Alfred, love, what on Earth did Francis tell you?" Arthur asked, batting around several torture methods in his head.

"Oh," chimed the child, "When he was watching me in the courtyard he warned me about your curse. Don't worry, Artie, I know it isn't your fault that you are trying to turn me into a grumpy old man, but I still do not want to be one. If you learn how to use magic properly I know you will be able to break the curse just fine and I can eat your cooking again. It is what changes me after all, and Francis has the antidote, but—Ah! Maybe that is what is wrong. I forgot to ask for his food…"

A sickly sweet smile formed on Arthur's lips, "Alfred, listen to me. I am not, nor have I ever been, cursed. Frog Face just does not know what he is talking about, which is why I worry for poor Matthew's sake."

Alfred suddenly looked up at him with all the awe in the world, "Really, Artie!? So I do not have to make you upset anymore? I really did not like to do that, because cursed or not, I still love you, Artie."

Arthur's heart skipped a beat at the words as his looked down at Alfred's newly formed, thousand watt smile. A genuine joy tugged his lips into a rather wide smile of his own as he finally started walking, tray in hand, back to the lunch room.

"I love you, too, Alfred, and next class will not be as boring as you would think." he assured, looking straight ahead as the child toddled around his legs.

Alfred titled his head to the side in a silent question of "why?" Why indeed. It could be for many reasons actually. Maybe it was because Arthur was one of the teacher's favorites, or maybe it was the fact that they would be researching a project next period, or it might even be that Frog Face was going to be none the wiser of what hit him in their shared class. For whatever reason it was, Arthur was quite sure Alfred would never forget this class period—Francis either.


	7. Chapter 6

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 6, Waiting

"I cannot believe he actually did that," Antonio muttered in utter disbelief, "I mean, I was not even in their class, but Francis looked like he had been attacked by an angry cat!"

Antonio's shock was met with a bellowing laughter from his albino friend, "Angry cat, Arthur, not much difference there."

Antonio shook his head at this as he continued to watch his friend double over. Admittedly, it had been pretty funny at first to him, too, but he was worried about Francis. Knowing him, he would not want to leave the dorm room until the marks healed, but magic classes started tonight. Skipping class in general while being a part of the dragon raising program could land one in some serious hot water, but missing a magic class was completely unacceptable. The fact that this was the first one only made it worse.

"I would at least like to know why he did it…" Antonio continued, sighing as he looked around, "It looks like we are here pretty early."

Gilbert had finally gotten ahold of himself when he snorted, "Yeah, I know. And as for why, would you believe he convinced Alfred that Arthur was cursed and was trying to turn him into an old man? Luddy told me all about it. That kid is sweet, but way too gullible."

Antonio's green eyes widened in realization, "You would think Francis would know better. Nothing makes Arthur madder than when someone messes with Alfred. It would set any raiser off, really."

Gilbert shrugged in agreement as he glanced around the empty, stone classroom they waited in, "This sucks. Why did we have to leave our dragons with our homeroom teachers again? No one likes that either."

"They said that we had some things we had to go over before our dragons could be involved." Antonio restated from memory nonchalantly, "At least they are all waiting together. They will probably be having a better time than us over here."

That was something that Gilbert could not argue with and he was not even going to try. That was especially true when he gained something else to focus on in the form of a group of entering students no other than the student council. Gilbert and Antonio identified them immediately: the president, Arthur, leading the way, the vice president, Lukas, at his heels, followed by the secretary, Vladimir, and the treasurer, Yao. Antonio cringed slightly at the sight of Arthur. One could always tell the level of anger he got to by the state of both he and his opponent after a fight. Considering the horror that was now Francis's face and the fact that Arthur was in pristine condition and had the owning-the-world-he-walked-on air about him, he had been absolutely livid. Antonio was suddenly gladder than ever that he did not have that class with them. What was more is now Arthur seemed to be irritated, and Antonio could only guess it was because he had to leave Alfred in someone else's hands.

"You put on quite a show, I heard!" Gilbert voiced, approaching the president who now had a bit of a wry smile on his lips.

"Nothing too fancy, but entertaining nonetheless." he responded, observing the area around them, "No one else with you? Surely that Frog is not going to ditch because of a few marks. He ought to think of Matthew."

As much as Antonio empathized with Francis, he could only agree with Arthur on that one. Still, he had faith in Francis. The man was a bit questionable in some areas, but never when it came to Matthew. Gilbert knew as much as well, so he merely shrugged in response. He had bigger fish to fry when another group of raisers entered the room.

"Mathias!" he cried, running up his spiky-haired close friend that returned his excitement, "I figured you would be on Lukas's tail, rather than with Tino and Berwald."

Sparing a glance over that the platinum blonde vice president that was giving him a death glare, Mathias spoke, "Me, too, in all honesty. Still, with all the rumors flying around I figured I should steer clear of the council."

Gilbert smirked at this, "Those rumors are true. He mauled Francis, and does not like you too much."

Mathias broke into a bout of laughter at this. He had always figured that the president liked him about as much as his cousin, Lukas, did, but hearing it come out of Gilbert's mouth was still something new. If anything, it made him want to tease his cousin even more for it, because he had to have a hand in it. Maybe he could even get their other cousins, Tino and Berwald, in on it, too. Tino would surely scold Lukas for making Arthur think badly of him when Ivan and Alfred were so close. Berwald would probably even get involved to try to mediate the situation on Ivan's behalf. No, not Mathias's, because it was Ivan who would be harmed if the two did not get along, or at least that is what Tino would say when he begged Berwald, knowing the Swedish man would rather just make Mathias apologize, for his existence if need be, instead. Then the whole thing would just turn into a giant mess that would embarrass Lukas in front of all his student council friends. The plan was perfect. All he had to do was hint that Arthur did not like him and everything else would take care of itself.

"Thanks man, you gave me a great idea." snickered Mathias, patting Gilbert firmly on the back before taking off in his mismatched family's direction, leaving Gilbert clueless as to what was going on, "Yo Tino, Berwald!"

Gilbert stared after Mathias's fleeting form for only a moment before boredom made him look for another person to entertain himself with. He would have gone back to Antonio, but Arthur had beaten him to it. He could only assume the conversation was made up of inquiries about Francis, Lovino, and probably some threats that Gilbert had already gotten during lunch. He may have been bored, but not enough to sit through that. Whenever the president went into ranting even he barely got a word in. His gaze moved to the rest of the council. Gilbert may have been able to squeeze a conversation out of them, but they seemed to be engrossed in dry small talk. He could even hear bits of numbers coming out of Yao's mouth. That was a conversation about the school budget and overspending waiting to happen and it was already sending shivers down his spine. Of course, his only other option was Mathias and his family. He had just been speaking to the man and he ran off. Gilbert really did not know why, but he figured he would only be getting in the way if he joined their conversation right now. That left only one real choice—to wait. Gilbert was never very good at waiting. By a sheer miracle, he did not actually have to wait all that long. He even was guaranteed amusement with the next two entering raisers: his own cousins, Roderich and Elizabeta. Just as they were walking in the door, he pounced, starting a conversation before they could meld into others.

"About time you two got here!" he sneered, "The party started a long time ago with yours truly."

Elizabeta crossed her arms and took a firm stance in front of Roderich before rolling her grassy green eyes, "We are still early, actually. What are you doing here though? You are the type to get here _during _the bell."

Gilbert smirked, looking past her and sometimes almost through her when she moved to block him, straight at Roderich as he spoke, "Just shaking things up, is all. Not that I planned this, ask Antonio."

Elizabeta made the mistake of allowing her eyes to wander over to said Spaniard, ending her all too familiar dance with Gilbert in a flash. Before she could even turn her head back around he had circled her and was face-to-face with Roderich. Despite having their faces merely inches apart from each other, Roderich held face against his cousin. If nothing else, everyone had to give Roderich credit for having willpower and pride despite all the abuse he took from more than just his albino cousin. In all honesty, though no one bullied him like Gilbert, none of the other raisers had expected him to want to be in the dragon raising program, much less actually get in, and it showed in how they generally distanced themselves from him. He had arrived at the school as a child music prodigy and grew up as such, taking one music class after the other and not really focusing on socializing or the other opportunities at the academy. Roderich actually continued that general strategy, or tried, but he had to drop out of several ensembles to find time to raise his dragon. When word originally got out that he was on the applicant list for the program many students had thought it had been a mistake, Gilbert and Elizabeta included. Only later were there rumors of a scandal within the family, information of which was deemed classified to all who were not involved, offering a possible motivation for the change, and because of this reveal, not one of the potential raisers wanted to endanger their own records by getting involved, scandal or not. The only one that truly stuck by him was Elizabeta, because Gilbert actually only started to harass him after he had been refused information about the rumors. That was why this dance was so familiar, because every time Gilbert had a shot at the cousin who did not trust his own family enough to share his troubles with them, he took it.

"What's up, Roddy?" sneered Gilbert, "Still need Elizabeta to protect you I see."

Roderich merely returned his stare, which looked more like a snobby pout on his own part. After all, nothing he could say would appease his cousin, not at this point. That much, he knew for sure as well as Elizabeta. It would be a futile fight and that frustrated Roderich to no end.

"Leave him alone!" she snarled, swinging a fist at Gilbert, which had the intended effect, "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Her knuckles did not graze her cousin, they did not even get close really, but he moved out of her hand's path, and thusly, farther from Roderich. Although she could fight better than just about everyone she knew, she was not a violent monster. She did not harm people until she had to, even the obnoxious ones, and as much as she was pained to admit it, both her cousins were important to her. That being said, that still did not excuse either's behavior.

"And you have to tell him to leave you alone." she growled, taking hold of Roderich's wrist and dragging him toward the council, "You are no lesser than him so do not let him bully you."

Gilbert watched silently as his cousins joined the others, perfectly content with watching Roderich getting pulled around, and shook his head. Elizabeta's dragon partner, a little girl she had named Adeline, matched her like a missing counterpart in a pair of gloves or socks, but Roderich's could not be farther from that. In fact, his dragon was Lovino's clutchmate, Feliciano as hard as it was for him to believe. Unlike temperamental Lovino, Feliciano was an empathetic airhead. They were both cowards and looked similar, he noted, but he would have thought that Lovino would fit Roderich better. In all actuality, he believed that Antonio's and Roderich's eggs had been switched somehow, not that he could prove it, or fate was simply being a cruel mistress when she had assigned those two their eggs. Because of it, it had become a bit of a pastime of his to wonder what would have happened if they had bonded with the "correct" eggs. In all honesty, he believed that Antonio and Feliciano would just be hyperactive all day, feeding off each other's energy. On the other hand, things between Roderich and Lovino would either be electric tension filled or they would know to give each other the correct amount of space, maybe even a mix of both. Gilbert could not really say whether the way things turned out was actually worse or better than his scenarios, but Roderich dealing with a kid just as volatile as himself was fun to picture. Then again, an eternally hyper airhead duo would be pushing it, even for him.

As he silently contemplated this, on the verge of boredom once more, he began to fish in his pockets for anything really. To his luck he did manage to find a few trinkets: a red yo-yo that was way past its prime, a couple of miscellaneous coins from past purchases, and disposable packet of juice. The juice seemed to be the more entertaining option of the three, despite the fact that he never remembered putting said item in his pocket and he had not even the slightest idea what flavor it was. That was how desperate boredom made him. Without much thought about his actions he slid the paired straw into the packet and began to sip away at the liquid, which still gave no clues as to the flavoring he noted. This really was the epitome of boredom. Antonio was still busy, Mathias was clearly doing something, and there was no way he was sitting through a speech about the budget _and _be nice to Roderich. Where was his cousin Vasch when he needed him? Even if he were not half as awesome as Gilbert was, that neutrality gun freak was pretty interesting in his own right. That was all Gilbert could think will he just stood there sipping, except for the occasional thought concerning Ludwig and hoping he was not going through the same torture. Then again Ludwig had always been kind of a stiff—

"Watch it!"

That was all Gilbert heard before he was firmly on the ground, coated with the sticky, sugary drink he had once been consuming. It took a second to realize that Arthur had managed to be on top of him, covered in the same fruity, he supposed, mess. As his red eyes widened they darted around the room quickly to see all eyes on them and a very nervous looking Mathias standing a little too close to Antonio. It did not take much to figure out he had something to do with this fiasco, especially considering Tino's horrified face, Berwald's face palm, and Lukas's demonic aura. Well then, normally Gilbert would either be the first screaming his lungs out or bursting into gut busting laughter at a mess like this, but he was quite content with letting his lips form a large smirk as he watched Arthur. His prayers were finally answered; things were going to get good. Unlike Gilbert, the rest of the audience was mostly horrified. Antonio was already looping around the grounded two in a plan to help Gilbert up, but stay as far away from Arthur and Mathias as possible. He was being pretty successful, too, as Arthur seemed a bit too shocked to move very quickly. However, that lasted a mere moment before his eyes became acidic. Then he lunged.

The way the day had played out most people expected for Mathias to be meeting his maker. Arthur already had one victory under his belt, taking another would be nothing. At least it would if he actually got a chance to land a hit on the Dane. Midair he had felt a hand grab at his shirt collar and pull him back and now said hand was holding him above the ground. He originally had every intention to bash the living daylights out of anyone who had the audacity to grab him by the collar, but was stopped in his tracks by a matching pair of acidic emeralds. He could only dangle in the air as he took in the sight of the tall, auburn-haired man he knew so well. Of all people, _he _had to walk in right then!

"Allistor," he bit out, "Put me down. Teacher's assistant or not, you have no right."

Said man shrugged with a devilish smirk, "Just trying to keep me baby brother from doing something he will regret."

As this confrontation progressed, being better than Gilbert had ever dreamed, more students filtered in, including Arthur's other older siblings, two brothers by the names of Iain and Dylan and a sister named Bedilia. Gilbert's cousin, Vasch, was among them as well, looking as ill-tempered as ever. Followed by him were the skittish trio by the names of Toris, Eduard, and Feliks. Well, at the very least the first two were skittish and the third was when he was in his right mind. However, Feliks was never in his right mind, being irrational by nature. Behind them was a large, Turkish student with a blank, white mask on his face that went by the name of Sadiq. He was a good guy that generally floated between the crowds of people, picking no favorite in particular. The final student that arrived behind him was no other than Francis, skulking in, heavily caked in what must have been foundation. The ongoing scene was quite distracting from the attention he normally wanted firmly on himself, not that he was complaining in his current situation.

It seemed only once Francis was securely inside and away from prying eyes did the teacher, the same one that gave them their respective dragons, Mr. Rune appear. Nothing had to be said. Once the man walked in the door, Allistor dropped Arthur and ambled across the room to greet the man he would be assisting with the class and Arthur made a show of huffing with various grumbles about being sticky and reuniting with the student body, all the while shooting death glares at a certain gruff man as he carried on as if he had not been the one hoisting his little brother in the air merely moments ago. Nevertheless, he was a little glad that Mr. Rune was acquainted with his siblings and knew these spats were too common for them to be taken seriously. If he had to go in front of the headmaster every time he might as well move to that office, Arthur had concluded. Still, that did not make them anymore fun—for anyone that was not Gilbert it seemed. While the albino had one of the largest grins plastered on his face that he had worn in a while the rest of the students seemed noticeably more subdued. With an exasperated sigh while Mr. Rune opened his mouth to speak, Arthur, and practically everyone else, could only hope the dragons were doing better than the raisers. Little did anyone know how impossible that reality was.


	8. Chapter 7

Raising Azure Fire

Chapter 7, Groups

It had been a simple wish, really, now that Alfred thought about it. All he really had wanted was to play with his friends in the absence of their raisers. After all, this was a rare opportunity that he could never live with himself if he had passed up. Very rarely did all the dragons assemble together simply because there were too many of them and it certainly did not help that a few raisers had tempers. That was all he had in mind under the watchful eye of a young teacher whose name he did not remember. All he did know about her was that she taught the class that Arthur and Francis had together—speaking of which, Arthur had been right. Alfred truly would never forget the events that transpired in that classroom. The thoughts surged into his mind whenever he saw that young teacher's face, and said tie served somewhat as an identity for her in his mind, but enough about the teacher! She herself was boring, being that she was dressed very plainly and only wanted to read when surrounded by all the infant magical creatures that had been herded into her sight. Her one task had been to watch the hatchlings, a rather interesting and involved task one might assume. Though clearly, she did not, and if she was going to treat them as things as boring as her books were, Alfred decided that she needed no other identity than the one he had assigned her. If anything, it was too exciting for her.

Only once he noted this, though it took mere seconds, did he continue on his task, which was more difficult than one would think. For most of the dragons around him, which were all of hatchlings, this was the first time they had met the others. In fact, Lilli, a petite dragon that looked a little lost at the moment, had only met one other dragon before coming to this room. That dragon had been no other than Alfred himself, and he prided himself on the fact that he knew every single dragon in the room. Therein laid the problem: who does he play with? The choice was usually so cut and dry before. If he were meeting new people or there were just a few of them of course he would play with said parties, and when all of them were in a larger group the dragons already knew each other so they branched off, allowing Alfred to wander from group to group. This was neither case. A natural shyness had overtaken most of the room and all the young dragons held back in their talking and playing, even with the others they already knew. In one word, it was awkward, and the teacher did not notice a thing. Not that Alfred expected her to at this point, so he just had to be the next best thing.

He quickly glanced around the room, identifying who was there. If they would not talk and group off for themselves, Alfred supposed he would do it for them! With new determination glowing in his blue eyes he set off at a break neck pace. The first group he pulled together seemed more mismatched than it actually was, since they were all already friendly and acquainted, containing Ludwig, Lovino, Ivan, Yao's charge Kiku, and Lukas's dragon Emil. This was the group Alfred would usually spend most of his time in, being that Kiku, Emil, and himself were connected through the Student Council. The same was true for the other three through the Student Voice Committee. How the two trios merged to this day was still a mystery, but it worked. The second group assembled was one of dragons of the meeker persuasion, containing Matthew, Feliciano, Lilli, Sadiq's Heracles, and Eduard's Raivis. Matthew and Feliciano already knew one another, but none of the other three had met them or each other. It was one of those groups Alfred assembled from pure instinct. The third and final group was probably the most mismatched, and definitely the largest, containing Berwald's Natalya, Tino's Sofia, Iain's Charles, Bedilia's Jett, Adeline, Vladimir's Damyan, Feliks's Estelle, and Toris's Leon. In all honesty, Alfred expected this group to split again down the line, but he also firmly believed they all needed to meet each other. Sofia and Natalya were clutchmates with Ivan, so they all knew each other. Leon and Estelle were the other dragons of the skittish trio so they were acquainted. Then Jett and Charles were clutchmates as well and Damyan knew other dragons from his connection to the council; Adeline had similar ties. All in all, these dragons all knew people, just not the other people in said group. That only made Alfred want to pair them up that much more to see what would happen.

It took a second for the other dragons to realize what he was doing, seeing that he just grabbed their arms and pulled them to separate sides of the stone classroom. However, once they did, they did not have the courage to risk being rude enough to walk away for the most part. The worst Alfred got was a couple of curses from Lovino, but that was unavoidable. Once he was finished placing people where he thought they should be the silence still hung heavy in the air. The very pressure of it after all his efforts was particularly crushing and he was just about to scream for breath when he caught it—just a snippet. Whispering. Alfred blinked in confusion, completely forgetting the previous pressure on his chest as he listened closer, and there it was again. He had not been hearing things, they were actually talking. All of them, and with time they got even louder. Alfred could not believe what he was seeing, or hearing for that matter; these groups were actually _functioning_. Now Alfred had never expected that. He just wanted to set everything in motion, he had not planned for one second that his split second assumptions to be right. His joy was almost too much to bear, or at least it had been before he caught sight of Heracles.

When Alfred had originally met Heracles the two did not talk much, or at all for that matter, but not for Alfred's lack of trying. The boy with brown, scruffy hair had been fast asleep in the courtyard, conveniently hidden in the bushes. Had it not been for tripping over him, Alfred would have never have seen him, and then proceed to take on the task of becoming his friend. After all, Heracles would not be sleeping on that fine sunny day if he had the choice of friends to play with. With that, he began the task of trying to wake his new friend up, which proved to be a nearly impossible task. He tried everything: tickling him, yelling, shaking him, poking him with his fingers and other objects, trying to drag him to his feet, bribing him, threatening him, trying to nap beside him, pouring water on him, trying to kiss him like in Arthur's fairytales before deciding better of it, waving one of his last chocolate bars in front of his noise, and then proceeding to eat it in front of him. He really did try everything his young mind could think of and then some before he deemed it as difficult as explaining magic to Arthur, which took scheming, so waking up his new friend was a battle for another day. Only then, when Alfred was exhausted and Arthur was searching for him already did Heracles wake up. Alfred honestly could not believe what he was seeing. It could be compared to watching a princess awaken to a kiss or a zombie rising from the dead, maybe a mix of both, so he followed dumbly after the dragon, completely forgetting about Arthur's cries. When Alfred came to his senses at last he was standing before a man much bigger than he, or Arthur for that matter, holding Heracles. He assumed it was his raiser and had his suspicions confirmed when he spoke.

"Thank you for watching him, you are his friend, right?" the masked man continued after a quick nod from Alfred, "He is a bit of a handful, and he probably has not told you yet, but his name is Heracles. You probably better get going back to your raiser, it is getting pretty late."

And it had, the sun was already setting. Alfred just knew he was going to be in trouble with Arthur for this, but he could not shake the feeling that he was glad he had done this anyway. When he eventually met up with Heracles again and they did finally speak, his feeling proved to be spot on. The dragon was calm, and some would say lazy, but Alfred just felt that he moved at his own pace, as slow as it was, and although he certainly was not Alfred's best friend, spending time with him was rewarding. Of course, in all that time together, Alfred had never seen Heracles act quite how he was now. Normally the little dragon's peace of mind could not be shaken for anything, or at least it seemed like it, but at the moment silent tears flowed down his cheeks and he shook like a leaf. That was not the Heracles Alfred knew and it pained him to see this imposter in his place. That was why he forgot all about his usual group that he had been planning on joining for a little wrestling and strode right over to Heracles, ignoring any lingering eyes on the two of them.

"What is wrong, Herry? Tell me so I can do something about it!" he all but pleaded, placing his hands on Heracles's shoulders.

For a moment said "Herry" just stared at the form in front of him as if he were not there before the words slipped out of his mouth no clearer than a mumble, "I want Sadiq."

And that was enough for Alfred, who had heard every word without a single issue. If that would help Heracles, who never acted like this, then he was going to get Sadiq! By now he did not have a thought to spare for the teacher that was supposed to be watching them, any consequences that would fall on himself, not even a thought for Arthur as he was engulfed in his quest. If Alfred really wanted to think about it, he was sure that everyone wanted to see their raisers. No one had really been away from them for very long after all. Then that was what they would do, go see them. They had to be on campus at the very least, and amassed altogether for the magic class Gilbert had been talking about. Now all Alfred had to do was find them. Whether he was followed or not was not really a priority. He was sure he would be followed, but he would still succeed if he just brought Sadiq back or Heracles to him. So finding them was the tricky part, or at least it would be to anybody who was not Alfred. However, that was exactly who he was, Alfred the flight obsessed trouble maker that had jumped off of as many buildings as step stools. He knew exactly how to locate the raisers, he just had to be quick about climbing to the tallest point he could see. So, without a second to waste, he wiped away Heracles's tears and slipped away through the door, the teacher still none the wiser. No wonder Arthur escaped detention.


End file.
